Moderate drinking tied to lower diabetes risk

2011-11-249

Advertisement

résuméBy Linda Thrasybule NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Middle aged women who eat a lot of refined carbs might offset their risk of type 2 diabetes by drinking a moderate amount of alcohol, a new study suggests. Following more than 80,000 women over 26 years

Advertisement

By Linda Thrasybule NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Middle aged women who eat a lot of refined carbs might offset their risk of type 2 diabetes by drinking a moderate amount of alcohol, a new study suggests.

Following more than 80,000 women over 26 years, researchers found that those who ate a diet high in refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, potatoes and sugary drinks, had a 30 percent lower risk of developing diabetes than women with similar eating habits who didn't drink alcohol.

Previous research has linked moderate drinking with lower diabetes risk, but the new study tried to get at why that might be by looking specifically at women with high-glycemic diets -- that is, diets high in the refined carbs that are prone to raise blood sugar.

"If you eat a high carb diet without drinking alcohol, your risk of developing diabetes is increased by 30 percent," said senior author Dr. Frank Hu, who studies nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

"However, if you eat a high carb diet, but (drink) a moderate amount of alcohol, the increased risk is reduced," he told Reuters Health. Nearly half of the estimated 26 million American adults with diabetes are women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Diabetes can lead to additional serious health issues, such as heart disease and stroke, nerve damage and amputations.

The new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, doesn't prove alcohol protects against diabetes. But Hu and his colleagues speculate that alcohol might affect the body's release of insulin and other substances after a meal, blunting the blood-sugar spikes that promote diabetes.

Hu's team analyzed data on 82,000 women participating in the long-term Nurses' Health Study. After 26 years of follow-up, 6,950 women, or about nine percent, who were diabetes free at the outset had developed the condition.

The researchers also examined participants' diets, including alcohol, based on surveys taken every four years.

Overall, the women who ate the most refined carbs, such as breakfast cereals, breads, mashed potatoes, colas and orange juice, and whose diets included a lot of meat, were at highest risk of developing diabetes.

But within that group, moderate drinkers -- those whose average alcohol intake was more than 15 grams (about half an ounce) a day -- had a 30 percent lower risk than women who didn't drink at all.

Typically, the moderate drinkers imbibed 24 grams (0.8 ounce) of alcohol a day, which translates to about two drinks per week.

Only a small fraction of the subjects were heavy drinkers (about two ounces per day or more), but heavy drinking was not linked with lowered diabetes risk.

Jill Kanaley, who studies type 2 diabetes at the University of Missouri in Columbia and was not part of the study, was surprised by the findings.

"I've never really noticed in the literature that drinking a few glasses of alcohol could have an impact on the relationship between how much carbs you eat and diabetes risk," Kanaley said.

But she pointed out that "there are many factors the study didn't look at, such as when alcohol was consumed, if it was consumed with the meal, or the different types of alcohol used."

Though Hu isn't encouraging people to start drinking alcohol as a means of diabetes prevention, he does think the study reveals an interesting interaction between alcohol and carbs.

"We still advocate a diet with reduced refined carbs," he said. "And for people who drink, they should do so moderately."

By Linda Thrasybule NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Middle aged women who eat a lot of refined carbs might offset their risk of type 2 diabetes by drinking a moderate amount of alcohol, a new study suggests. Following more than 80,000 women over 26 years

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People living in communities that lend themselves to walking had a significantly lower risk of developing diabetes than those living in the least walkable neighborhoods in a large new study from Canada. "If you have fewer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating more blueberries, apples and pears may be linked to lower risk of diabetes, according to a new U.S. study. These fruits are loaded with flavonoids, a natural compound present in certain fruits, vegetables and grains

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who get a range of fruits and vegetables in their diets may have a somewhat decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. The findings, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, do not prove that eating your

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Severely obese women who undergo weight-loss surgery may have a decreased risk of developing diabetes during future pregnancies, a new study suggests. Researchers found that among 700 women who had undergone obesity surger

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older men who spend several hours walking each day are less likely to have a stroke than their peers who rarely walk, a new study suggests. And walking pace didn't seem to matter. Researchers said few studies have looked s

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Americans of Indian descent may have a heightened risk of diabetes, even when their weight is in the normal range, research suggests. Researchers found that among more than 7,400 Asian Americans in a national health study,

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who eat plenty of high-potassium fruits, vegetables and dairy products may be less likely to suffer a stroke than those who get little of the mineral, a new study suggests. The findings, reported in the journal Stro

n">Men who love eating tomatoes may have lower odds of suffering a stroke, according to a Finnish study. Researchers whose results appeared in the journal Neurology found that of the more than 1,000 older men they followed, those with relatively h

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diets heavy in meat and fat seem to raise the risk of diabetes, though the effects of this and other diet patterns may vary by ethnicity and sex, a new study finds. The study, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, focused

n">(Reuters Health) - In a 10-year U.S. study, people who drank coffee regularly were less likely to die of many causes, including heart disease and diabetes, than those who didn't drink coffee at all. The more coffee study participants consumed,

n">(Reuters Health) - Coffee drinkers in a long-term study were about half as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as those who didn't drink coffee, and researchers think an inflammation-lowering effect of the beverage might be the key. "Extensi

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children exposed to two chemicals commonly used in food packaging are more likely to be obese or show signs of diabetes precursors than those with lower exposure, new research suggests. Researchers found urine levels of on

n">Native Americans who often ate processed meat in a can, generically known as "spam" and a common food on reservations, one subsidized by the government -- had a two-fold increased risk of developing diabetes over those who ate little

LONDON Drinking just one can of sugar-laced soda drink a day increases the risk of developing diabetes by more than a fifth, according to a large European study published on Wednesday. Using data from 350,000 people in eight European countries, resea

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating less meat and more vegetables is tied to a lower risk of cataracts, a British study says. In a large dietary survey that followed people for as long as 15 years, researchers found that about three in 50 meat eaters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diet soda and other artificially-sweetened drinks - previously implicated in raising the chance of developing diabetes - are not guilty, suggests a new study from Harvard University researchers. In a large group of men fol

By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older people who use olive oil in their cooking and on their salads may have a lower risk of suffering a stroke, researchers reported Wednesday. In a study that followed older French adults for five years, re

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with heart disease who drink, even moderately, may have a slightly increased risk of a common heart rhythm problem, a new study suggests. The study is not the first to link moderate drinking to the heart arrhythmia,

CHICAGO People who live in neighborhoods with safe sidewalks, ample parks, good public transportation and ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables are 38 percent less likely to develop diabetes than others, U.S. researchers said on Monday. They sa